Distracted DeLand man charged with vehicular homicide in crash that crushed pickup truck
A DeLand man distracted by a cell phone and driving a 33,000-pound dump truck that crushed a Ford Ranger pickup on State Road 44 almost two years ago has been arrested on charges of vehicular homicide, according to a police report.
Jesse Sauter, 34, was arrested on Feb. 18 for the May 24, 2022 wreck that involved six vehicles at a traffic light on S.R. 44 and Colony Park Road in New Smyrna Beach.
It was the second wreck that Sauter caused due to being distracted by a cell phone, records show.
Sauter was also charged with careless operation of a motor vehicle without a valid driver's license causing death or serious bodily injury, and reckless driving with serious bodily injury.
Methamphetamine detected
Although Sauter's blood sample showed he did not have alcohol in his system, it detected the presence of methamphetamine, the police report said.
Kirk Beres, 48, of New Smyrna Beach, the driver of the Ford Ranger pickup, was killed in the crash. Susan Swisher, 70, of New Smyrna Beach was seriously injured in the wreck, court documents show.
Woman thrown from truck Man charged with murder in connection with death of woman thrown from vehicle in Daytona
New Smyrna Beach police said that at 3:20 p.m. on May 24, 2022, Sauter was eastbound on S.R. 44 driving a dump truck with an attached trailer hauling a wheel loader/tractor at 45 mph when he smashed into the back of the Ford Ranger.
A chain reaction followed involving four other vehicles including a Nissan Frontier, Jeep Wrangler, Nissan Pathfinder, and a semi with a trailer.
Sauter told police he was headed to a job site, was looking at Google Maps and was about to send a text message to his supervisor and didn't realize he was approaching traffic that was stopped at a red light, the police report states.
The dump truck struck the Ford Ranger, which then hit the Nissan Frontier. The Ford Ranger became wedged between the two vehicles.
Crane used in rescue
The truck and trailer were owned by Tucker's Bobcat Services of Orange City, according to a police affidavit. Sauter's employer was listed as a tree service.
The dump truck pushed the Ford Ranger sideways until it rolled over onto its roof. The heavy truck drove over the smaller vehicle, punching its fuel tank, until it was on top of it, trapping Beres, traffic homicide investigators said.
Firefighters had to request the help of a crane to lift the dump truck off the Ford Ranger to rescue Beres, records show.
Beres was airlifted to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach. He died at the hospital two days later on May 26. Swisher suffered injuries to her neck, back, spine, and lower extremities, and was taken by ambulance to Halifax Health Medical Center.
The driver of the Jeep Wrangler, Alexa Roscoe, 27, of Mims. suffered an injury to her face and was also transported to Halifax Health Medical Center, court records show.
Same truck, driver in crash a month earlier
On Dec. 15, New Smyrna Beach police traffic homicide investigators got a warrant to check the event data recorder/airbag control module of the dump truck only to find it had been removed, a report states.
In investigating how the event data recorder was missing, New Smyrna Beach police discovered that the same dump truck had crashed on April 15 near DeLand, a month before it caused the fatal accident in New Smyrna Beach.
Sauter was also driving the truck towing the same trailer with the wheel loader in the April crash. In that crash, Sauter also told troopers that he was distracted by his cell phone that dropped and he had leaned over to pick it up when he rear-ended two vehicles stopped at a red light at Spring Garden and Beresford avenues, police said.
Troopers cited Sauter with careless driving, New Smyrna Beach police said.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida man faces vehicular homicide charge in crash that killed motorist
